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THE 



HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE 



BY 



IDA C. CRADDOCK 



"For thee, O dear, dear Country, 
Mine eyes their vigils keep." 



6 






PHILADELPHIA 

PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
.897 






Copyright, 1897, 

BY 

— . Ida C Craddock. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 



What does the Bible say about that world 
beyond the grave, called Heaven ? 

This is a question which many a devout 
Christian has asked, only to be referred to the 
apocalyptic visions of John in the book of 
Revelation, — visions which relate chiefly to the 
religious side of the future life. I maintain, 
however, that all through the Bible may be 
caught glimpses of that life, not only in its 
religious, but also in its social and industrial 
aspects. And if we bring our intelligence to 
bear upon each of these momentary revelations 
of Heavenly customs, we shall be able to con- 
struct a fairly vivid mental picture of life in 
Heaven. 

Our sources of information, as revealed in 
the Bible, may be classified as follows : 

1. The book of Eevelation. 

2. The statements of such seers as Ezekiel, 
Isaiah, and Daniel concerning various inter- 
views which they claim to have had with 
angelic beings and with the Lord. 

3 



4 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

3. The allusions to angels and their ways 
of doing which are scattered throughout both 
the Old and the New Testaments. 

4. Passages which seem to recognize that 
which is variously termed in modern times 
the dual personality of man, his wraith, his 
astral form, his double. 

5. The angelic appearances of deceased 
prophets at the Mount of Transfiguration and 
in the abode of the Witch of Endor. 

6. The ascensions of Elijah and Jesus. 

7. The words of Jesus while on earth. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Sources of Information in the Bible 3 

Topography of Heayen 7 

Vegetation 12 

Water 16 

Food and Clothing 18 

Radiance of Angels 23 

Equality of Man with Angels 31 

The Wraith 34 

Animals 41 

Industries 48 

Wrongdoing 54 

Family Life 55 

Requirements for Citizenship 58 

Substantiality of Heaven 64 



Throughout this boot, the Re- 
vised Version of the Old and 
New I- fe, as embodying 

-arches of the most recent 
and most accurate scholarship^ 
has been used for quotations. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 



TEopograpbs of 1Hea\>en* 

Heaven, according to the Bible, consists of 
both a city and a garden, the one being en- 
closed within the other. The city is laid out 
at right angles, and in the book of Revelation 
the amount of cubic space it occupies is given 
in furlongs each way. These figures, however, 
are considered by commentators to be either 
mystical or else expressions of rhetorical hyper- 
bole, just as when we ourselves speak of " ten 
dozen people/' " a hundred and one things to 
do," etc., to indicate a number too large to be 
conveniently computed. 

Some difference of opinion exists among 
commentators as to whether the apocalyptic 
visions of John were entirely fulfilled in the 
early centuries of the Church, or whether they 
have been fulfilled only in part, or whether 
they are all to come to pass at some future day. 
The Futurists, the last of these three schools, 
see in the closing chapters of Revelation a 

7 



8 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

prophecy of a millennium to come. Against 
these the Preterists (the first-mentioned of the 
three schools) point to the remarks uttered by 
the celestial speaker, " Behold, I come quickly. 
. . . Seal not up the words of the prophecy of 
this book; for the time is at hand," and to 
similar indications of a speedy fulfilment of 
the prophecies as proof that their fulfilment is 
long since past. 

However, whether the Heavenly City of 
Eevelation has or has not yet been let down 
through space from the upper heavens, we 
learn from the Bible that it was already in 
existence at the time of the crucifixion, and 
that at least one human being was taken 
there upon the very day of his death. I refer 
to the thief upon the cross, to whom Jesus 
said, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise." 

That Paradise is one and the same with the 
Heavenly City is shown by the text, " To him 
that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of 
the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of 
God" (Rev. ii. 7) ; for we find in the descrip- 
tion of the Xew Jerusalem that the tree of 
life is in the midst of that city. If Jesus took 
the crucified thief with him to Paradise and to 
the Xew Jerusalem, has he left him there all 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 9 

these centuries in loneliness, awaiting the Day 
of Judgment to rejoin his fellow-beings ? That 
were a poor return for his championship of 
the Crucified One. JSay, from the remark of 
Jesus, it is evident that he was rewarding the 
thief by assuring him of a near happiness; 
and it seems to me that we are warranted in 
thinking of that thief as to-day walking the 
streets of the Heavenly City and tasting of 
the fruits of the tree of life in Paradise, in 
company with the angels and with those 
whom we term "the blessed dead." 

Those Christians who assert that their de- 
ceased friends remain asleep, and to all intents 
and purposes lifeless, until the Day of Judg- 
ment shall arrive, have surely forgotten the 
remark of Jesus, when he discoursed on the 
future life and asserted the resurrection of the 
so-called " dead." " God ... is not the God 
of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto 
Him." 

The word Paradise, it will be remembered, 
is derived from the Greek paradeisos, which 
means " a garden ;" and the two terms — " gar- 
den" and " Paradise" — are interchangeable in 
at least one text. That the city and the 
garden are contained one within the other is 
shown by the tree of life being both " in the 



10 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

city 5 ' and " in the garden." But whether the 
garden encircles the city, or whether the city 
encircles the garden, the apostle does not say, 
for he was evidently too dazzled by the glories 
of the city walls and streets and the throne to 
take much note of vegetation. 

The streets of the city — so he informs us — 
are of pure gold, which seems to have been 
so manipulated in the manufacture as to be 
transparent, like glass ; and it would appear 
that the buildings are made of the same ma- 
terial, so that their walls are probably trans- 
parent (Rev. xxi. 18). The city itself is radi- 
ant with a strange light, dark green in color, 
but " clear as crystal." Possibly he may have 
been trying to describe the green of gold-leaf 
when it is beaten very thin, — although the 
green color of gold-leaf is light, and not dark. 
According to one commentator, the city is 
built on terraces, one rising above another, 
each terrace having its distinct wall support- 
ing or encircling it ; or, according to another 
commentator, " the wall rests on a basis of 
twelve courses of stones, each course encom- 
passing the city, and constituting one founda- 
tion." These stones are of various precious 
kinds, and their colors appear to be, in 
order, — 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. H 

1. Dark green. 

2. Blue (our lapis lazuli). 

3. Iridescent emerald. 

4. Bright green. 

5. Red and white. 

6. Bright red. 

7. Golden yellow. 

8. Bluish green. 

9. Yellowish green. 

10. Apple green. 

11. Blue. 

12. Yiolet or purple. 

The wall which rises upon this foundation 
is built of dark-green stone. It is pierced by 
a number of gates, each made of a single 
pearl. Through the midst of one of the 
streets flows a river, clear as crystal. There 
is neither church nor temple in the city, 
according to the latest of John's visions, — 
although an earlier vision speaks of the tem- 
ple of God in which the ark of His covenant 
is seen. As to buildings, Jesus informed his 
disciples that there were many mansions 
(Greek, " abiding-places") in his Father's 
household, whither he himself was soon to 
depart, and where he purposed preparing a 
" place" for his hearers, so that they evidently 
should not be without a mansion to reside in 



12 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

upon their arrival. It is fair to infer that his 
remark about the " many mansions" still 
holds good for the blessed dead of this and 
of succeeding generations. To suppose that 
these mansions have all been disposed of in 
the nineteen centuries which have elapsed 
since the days of Jesus of Xazareth, suggests 
a faulty management in the municipality of 
Heaven that would put an earthly munici- 
pality to the blush. That which earthly, 
erring beings were able to accomplish in 
handling the crowds which flocked to the 
Columbian Exposition in Chicago can surely 
be equaled, if not surpassed, in a municipality 
run by angelic beings under the direct super- 
vision of God. If there were " many man- 
sions'' in Heaven when Jesus remarked, con- 
cerning these, " If it were not so, I would 
have told you," we maybe sure that there are 
" many mansions" in Heaven still. 

IDegetatton* 

That Heaven is not entirely devoid of vege- 
tation is indicated in several ways. 

1. The word " garden" is used as a syno- 
nym for " Heaven," as noted above. 

2. The tree of life, which grows " on 
either side" of the river of the water of life, 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 13 

is noted for its twelve annual crops of fruit 
and for leaves which are intended " for the 
healing of the nations." Such a tree, to 
meet the needs of the myriads of human 
beings who may be safely reckoned among 
the blessed dead, must surely be an exten- 
sive affair — large enough, indeed, to consti- 
tute a veritable orchard all to itself. Ac- 
cording to Revelation ii. 7, this tree is 
intended for the use of "him that over- 
cometh," which of course includes every 
one who, being sufficiently mature to dis- 
tinguish right from wrong, has " overcome" 
before passing away through death into Para- 
dise. Possibly those who " overcome" even 
after death may be added to the number 
entitled to eat of this tree of life. In either 
case, we are justified in picturing to ourselves 
this tree as a refreshing green spot of con- 
siderable extent, none the less welcome be- 
cause surrounded by the brilliant effulgence 
of the golden-streeted city. 

3. At the Last Supper, Jesus remarked to 
his disciples, as he handed them the cup of 
wine, " I will not drink henceforth of this 
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink 
it new with you in my Father's kingdom." 
This shows that grape-vines and grapes will be 



14 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

found in that world beyond the grave to which 
he was so soon to depart. 

4. The white-robed throng of worshippers 
about the throne have " palms" in their hands. 
Palms presuppose palm-trees, and a rather 
large grove, too, if the leaves used in the ser- 
vice around the throne are to be green and 
fresh, and not retained until they wither to 
the yellow of our palm-leaf fans. The con- 
ception of angels employing ragged palm-leaf 
fans (which are precisely what withered palm- 
leaves are) in the stately and solemn religious 
rites described by John the Revelator is, to say 
the least, incongruous; while green palm- 
leaves, on the other hand, are in keeping with 
the impressiveness of the ceremonial. But, 
as I have said, if the palms are to be green 
ones, they must be constantly renewed, and 
this will require many, many palm-trees, 
either scattered singly throughout the golden 
streets, or else collected into one or more 
groves. 

5. The worshippers who carry palms also 
wear white robes. The Son of man who 
speaks to John the Revelator is clothed in a 
long robe. The angels who appear on the 
resurrection morn are attired in dazzlingly 
white apparel. Of what material are these 






THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 15 

robes made — of the skins of animals, of 
asbestos or some similarly fibrous mineral, or 
of the tissues and fibres of plants ? Does not 
the last of the three seem the most likely ? 
It is true that, in Revelation, chapter xix., 
only a symbolic meaning attaches to the idea 
of robes. There the Bride of the Lamb is 
said to be clothed in fine linen which " is the 
righteous acts of the saints;" and there are 
passages in Scripture which speak of washing 
garments in the blood of the Lamb (evidently 
a figurative expression). But elsewhere in 
the Bible the robes worn seem to be real. 
The angel who appears to Daniel is clothed in 
white linen, and nothing is said about his 
garments being illusory, and not actual. Now, 
linen is made from flax ; and so there must 
have been in Heaven at least one field of flax 
from which that linen robe was made. 

We are warranted, then, in assuming that 
the lover of nature will be gladdened by the 
sight, possibly, of growing flax, and certainly 
of graceful palms by the wholesale, of grape- 
vines laden with luscious grapes, and of a 
wonderful fruit-tree, of a species unknown to 
any earthly botanist. Moreover, he will find 
himself in a garden, called " the garden of 
God." (Rev. ii. 7, margin.) 



16 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Mater 

has evidently a cleansing or, at least, a re- 
freshing effect upon the bodies of Heavenly 
beings, inasmuch as Abraham's offer to bring 
water to wash the feet of his celestial visitors 
(Genesis xviii.) would seem to have been 
promptly accepted. 

In Eevelation, a "sea made of glass" or 
"a glassy sea" is spoken of in the earlier 
chapters ; but toward the end of the Book it 
is said, " The sea is no more." "Whether this 
remark refers to the glassy sea or to our 
earthly ocean is uncertain. So, likewise, is 
it uncertain just what is meant by the " glassy 
sea" — whether a tideless ocean, or a sea of 
literal glass, or a sea which, unlike earthly 
waters, is so transparent and so calm that all 
the multitudinous forms of life that swarm in 
its depths may be clearly seen. Whatever its 
significance, therefore, I think we can scarcely 
rely upon the glassy sea as proving the exist- 
ence of salt water in Heaven — all the more 
as, in one chapter, this glassy sea is said to be 
" mingled with fire." I refer to it in passing, 
only because so much has been made of it 
by various writers. 

But if salt water be wanting in Heaven, 
there will be no lack of fresh, according to 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 17 

the Bible. The " river of water of life, bright 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 
God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the 
street/ 5 must surely play an important part in 
the economy of Heaven, or it would not ap- 
pear so conspicuously in the book of Reve- 
lation. It is intended for drinking purposes, 
as we learn from Revelation vii. 16, 17, where 
it is said of the redeemed ones who " come 
out of the great tribulation," " They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; 
.... for the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall 
guide them unto fountains of waters of life." 
In Revelation xxi. 6, a voice out of the 
throne promises, " I will give unto him that 
is athirst of the fountain of the water of life 
freely." In Revelation xxii. 17, occurs the 
invitation of the Spirit and the Bride, "He 
that is athirst, let him come ; he that will, let 
him take the water of life freely." 

"Whether this river be also used for cleans- 
ing purposes, we are not informed. However, 
the universal brightness and cleanliness of 
Heavenly things would indicate that water or 
some other equally cleansing material is freely 
used. 

The linen garment worn by the angel seen 
2 



18 THE HEAVEN OP THE BIBLE. 

by Daniel surely required water, or some 
equivalent with, which we are not familiar, in 
the process of separating the flax-fibres from 
the glutinous part of the stalk, preparatory to 
spinning the linen thread of which the gar- 
ment was woven. 

3foo& anb Glotbing* 

" Surely, angels and the spirits of our de- 
parted friends do not require food, as we do," 
has been more than once remarked in my 
hearing. But we learn from the Bible that 
angels, at least, eat food, whether they require 
it or not. 

In Genesis, chapter xviii,, the three an- 
gelic men who visit Abraham eat cakes of 
meal, and also veal dressed with butter and 
milk. One of these beings was evidently the 
Lord ; for Abraham detains the Lord in talk 
when the three set out for Sodom, and when 
the angelic company reach that city their 
number has diminished to two. In Lot's 
house these two angels eat unleavened bread, 
baked. 

In Revelation ii. 7, " The Spirit saith to the 
churches, To him that overcometh, to him 
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is 
in the garden of God." And in the seventh 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 19 

chapter one of the elders tells John that the 
redeemed " shall hunger no more." Inas- 
much as they are to eat of the tree of life, it 
is fair to infer that their hunger is to be satis- 
fied by eating, just as their thirst is to be 
quenched by drinking of the water of life. 

We have already noted the remark of Jesus 
about the fruit of the vine of which he and 
his disciples shall drink in his Father's king- 
dom. Whether this beverage is to be alco- 
holic or non-alcoholic, he does not state ; but 
his expression would seem to favor the idea 
that the pure juice of the grape, unfermented 
and unchanged from its original fruity flavor, 
is meant. 

In the 78th Psalm, verse 25, where the 
Psalmist refers to the manna rained down in 
the desert, we find in the King James Version 
the expression, " Man did eat angels' food." 
The Revised Version, however, translates this, 
" Man did eat the bread of the mighty." 

Jesus partook of food after his resurrection, 
and ascended into Heaven with the chemical 
elements of that food at work in his body. 
The food partaken of was a piece of broiled 
fish, and also, according to some authorities, 
a piece of honeycomb. 

It would therefore seem, from the foregoing 



20 THE HEAVED OF THE BIBLE. 

incidents, as though animal food is both pos- 
sible and allowable to the possessor of a celes- 
tial body. If that semi-earthly, semi-celestial 
body which Mary was forbidden to touch im- 
mediately after its emergence from the tomb 
did, nevertheless, in its earthly aspect, so 
materialize shortly after as to be able to par- 
take of earthly food and ascend into Heaven 
with that food even then undergoing assimi- 
lation within it, this occurrence argues that 
the realm into which the owner of the body 
was ascending was not very different from 
our own earthly sphere of existence in its 
requirements for food. 

In the case of the ascension of Elijah, 
nothing is said of his partaking of food im- 
mediately prior thereto. But as, unlike Jesus, 
he was not semi-divine, but an out-and-out 
earthly man, built up by food from day to 
day, in all probability, as the rest of us are, it 
is evident that he also must have taken with 
him into Heaven elements of earthly food em- 
bedded in his tissues and circulating through 
the blood of his body. Moreover, he still 
possessed that which is common to us all, — 
the physiological means of digesting and as- 
similating food. He also must have continued, 
probably by improved methods, the earthly 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 21 

necessity for the casting off of effete matters 
from his system, — a suggestion which opens 
up the whole question of hygienic living, of 
baths, of sewerage, etc. 

That the inhabitants of Heaven are an in- 
tensely clean people, is evident from the stress 
which more than one seer lays on the daz- 
zling whiteness of the celestial garments ; and 
John the Revelator tells us emphatically that 
the garments of the worshippers round about 
the throne were clean, having been washed 
by a process which (whether a material or a 
spiritual process, he does not state) is termed 
washing in the blood of the Lamb. For very 
evident reasons, however, the process of 
" washing in blood" could not be cleansing in 
a material aspect, but must be entirely spirit- 
ual and mystical in its significance. The 
question then arises, How can material linen 
garments be cleansed by a spiritual and mys- 
tic process ? The suggestion is unthinkable. 
The garments, therefore, to which John the 
Revelator refers in this connection must also 
be mystical, as well as is the process of 
cleansing, however material they are in some 
other Bible passages. I have already referred 
to the evidently real garments worn by angels 
at the resurrection and upon other occasions 



22 THE HEAVEN OP THE BIBLE. 

reported by earthly seers. But there are in- 
dications in the Bible that clothes are worn 
in Heaven not for modesty, but for beauty, 
and that the human form divine is sometimes 
seen in all its naked purity, as God intended 
it when He placed it in the Paradise where 
Adam and Eve sinned the sin that put impure 
thoughts into their minds, and drew from the 
Lord the scathing question, " WHO told thee 
thou wast naked?" In this Paradise man 
and woman, according to the Sacred Word, 
walked day by day, naked and not ashamed, 
so long as they lived in accordance with the 
will of God who placed them there. All 
through the Bible, like a golden thread, runs 
the utterance of God's desire to have man 
live the life which He has planned for him ; 
and Paul lays stress on Christ's being the 
second Adam, who shall restore to man what 
was lost through the sin of the first Adam. 
If all that was lost through that sin is to be 
restored, we shall most surely, when we enter 
the Paradise of the Heavenly Jerusalem, where 
grows the tree of life, find ourselves in a gar- 
den where the human form shall be seen as 
God at first intended it should be seen in the 
original Paradise. 

In this connection, it is interesting to note 






THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 23 

the description which Daniel (Dan. x. 5, 6) 
gives of an angelic being whom he saw : 

"I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and 
behold a man clothed in linen, whose loins 
were girded with pure gold of Uphaz; his 
body also was like the beryl, and his face as 
the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as 
lamps of fire, and his arms and feet like in 
color to burnished brass." 

Here it would seem as though the clothing 
must be either transparent, or else drawn 
aside after the fashion of a semi-nude statue, 
to allow the beryl-like body to be seen. And 
in the case of those who participate in the 
most sacred rites in Heaven, round about the 
throne of Gk)d, if the garments referred to by 
John the Revelator be really symbolic, and 
not actual, — in short, if they do not exist, — 
then, evidently, in the very presence of the 
Almighty, man and woman are once more as 
they were said to be in Paradise when first 
they walked with God, — naked and not 
ashamed. 

IRaMance of Bngels* 

Daniel is not the only seer who notes that 
radiance of a remarkable kind accompanies 



24 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

angelic visitors to this earthly plane. When the 
angel appeared to the shepherds to announce 
the birth of a Saviour, a glory shone round 
about. The angel who appeared to Moses in 
the desert did so surrounded by a flame of fire ; 
yet the bush in the midst of which he mani- 
fested was not consumed. In Matthew xxviii., 
the angel who announces the resurrection has 
an appearance which flashes upon the startled 
women like lightning. In Luke xxiv., the 
very garments of the angels upon the resur- 
rection morn are spoken of as " dazzling." 
In Acts x. 30, the angelic man who appears to 
Cornelius while the latter is praying is clothed 
in bright apparel. When the angel comes to 
deliver Peter from prison, a light shines sud- 
denly in the cell. And the Son of man, who 
appears to John at the opening of the book of 
Revelation, has eyes "as a flame of fire, and 
. . . feet like unto burnished brass, as if it 
had been refined in a furnace. . . . His coun- 
tenance was as the sun shineth in his 
strength." 

It seems to the author a question whether 
all of this radiance properly belongs to the 
inhabitants of the celestial realm. May it not 
be partly due to an optical illusion caused by 
the seers' eyes being unaccustomed to focusing 






THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 25 

these beings from another material plane of 
existence, who apparently are often close to 
us, and who are yet so rarely seen, — just as 
when we look through an imperfect lens at 
any earthly object we may see it surrounded 
by a prismatic halo ? In the case of Balaam, 
the angel stood close to him without being 
seen by him. The angel was before his eyes 
all the while, and was even seen by the ass 
upon which he rode, but not until " the Lord 
opened the eyes of Balaam" was the latter 
able to bring the angel into focus. This event 
would indicate that the human eye-lens is un- 
suited for focusing angels, save under excep- 
tional conditions of spiritual exaltation; and 
such imperfection in our eyes may, as I have 
suggested, account for the singular play of 
radiance round about these beings at the rare 
times when they have been focused. 

Any one with astigmatic eyes, who wears 
spectacles of the complex kind known as 
cross-cylinders, can try for himself the pecu- 
liar effect produced by laying a chiffon veil 
across his glasses. The street-lamps become 
straightway surrounded by a blurred but 
dazzling halo, through which the colors of 
the rainbow stream outward in well-defined 
sheaves of rays, whose slant varies with every 



26 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

change in the position of the gazer's eyes, 
even if that change be entirely due to the in- 
halation and expiration of the breath. 

If this interference with rays of light from 
an earthly source can produce such astonish- 
ing effects in radiance and color, may not a 
similar interference produce a similarly mar- 
vellous halo around objects which belong to a 
sphere of existence for which our human eye- 
lenses are unsuited ? 

But this, you will say, presupposes light of 
some kind surrounding the angelic form, so 
that we may get the effects of refraction. 
Well, according to Scripture, this appears to 
be the case, as we learn from Revelation that 
there is no night in Heaven, the city and its 
inhabitants being bathed in perpetual efful- 
gence, — an effulgence which is spoken of as 
"the glory of God." Now, if a dweller in 
that Heavenly City, while standing on his own 
plane of existence, be suddenly revealed to 
eyes upon the earthly plane, — eyes whose 
lenses are unfit for transmitting all the rays of 
that singular, unearthly effulgence in which 
the angelic form is perpetually bathed, — may 
there not occur such refraction as will result 
in blurred, dazzling halos and sheaves of 
colors ? Such an optical illusion would fully 



THE HEAYEN OE THE BIBLE. 27 

account for the two-edged sword proceeding 
from the mouth of the Son of man in the 
opening chapter of the book of Revelation, 
and for the appearances of "lightning," of 
" amber," of " fire," of a countenance " as the 
sun shineth in his strength," and for other 
dazzling optical effects in celestial manifesta- 
tions ; for the " mount that burned with fire" 
when God spake with Moses ; for the " paved 
work of sapphire stone, and as it were the 
very heaven for clearness," seen under the 
feet of " the God of Israel" by Moses and the 
elders ; for the likeness of a sapphire throne, 
when the glory of the Lord is revealed to 
Ezekiel, and for the beryl-colored wheels of 
light which he sees accompanying the cherubs; 
for John the Revelator's description of the One 
who sat upon the Heavenly throne being like 
two precious stones to look upon, respectively 
dark green and the color of carnelian, and of 
there being a rainbow like an emerald round 
about the throne. 

It is curious to note, by the way, that beryl 
is said by Ezekiel to be the color of the wheels 
surrounding the cherubs, and by Daniel to be 
the color of the body of the angel who wears 
the linen robe, — especially curious, when we 
remember that beryl is a yellowish or bluish 



28 THE HEAVEN OP THE BIBLE. 

or colorless emerald; that God's throne is 
seen by John surrounded by a rainbow like an 
emerald, and that one of the two colors in- 
vesting Him who sits on the throne is dark 
green ; that the entire wall of Paradise is dark 
green in color, built on a foundation of pre- 
cious stones, among which the blue and green 
tints predominate, and that the light of the city 
(Greek, " luminary") is compared to the dark- 
green stone of which the wall is built, but is, 
nevertheless, " clear as crystal." Could these 
instances of the beryl-like body of the angel 
seen by Daniel, and the beryl-colored wheels 
of light accompanying the cherubim seen by 
Ezekiel, be cases where the light of Heaven in 
which these beings stood was imperfectly seen, 
as well as the beings themselves ? And why 
should this strange, greenish light — so crystal- 
line, so glorious — appear thus conspicuously 
and in excess of other hues, — as, for instance, 
it does in John's description of the emerald- 
rainbowed throne and the Being sitting 
thereon, like unto two precious stones, one 
of which is dark green in color ? Can it be 
that it is a color unknown on earth, — one of 
those colors in the spectrum which we know 
exist, which the lowly ant can see, but to which 
human eyes on this earthly plane are, so far as 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 29 

we can tell, quite blind? There is surely 
nothing incongruous in the idea of Heaven's 
being a plane of existence where all colors to 
which earthly eyes are blind shall be per- 
ceived. If so, and if, as I have suggested, 
the colors and objects and inhabitants of the 
Heavenly City be invisible through human 
eye-lenses upon the earth, except when the 
owners of these lenses are in a peculiar state 
of spiritual exaltation (and even then are but 
imperfectly focused), it would go far toward 
explaining the curious radiance surrounding 
angelic forms, the halos, the flashes of light, 
the dazzling apparel, the faces that shine like 
the sun, and the feet that glow like burnished 
brass ; and if, also, the seers, while describing 
these appearances, perceived those ultra-violet 
rays of the spectrum to which earthly human 
eyes are by nature blind, it might account both 
for the emphasis which they lay on the preva- 
lence of bluish and greenish tints in their 
visions, and also for their very evident ina- 
bility to describe those tints except by simili- 
tudes. 

We find in Daniel xii. 3, this promise : 

" They that be wise [or, as the marginal 
reading has it, " the teachers"] shall shine as 



30 THE HEAVEN OE THE BIBLE. 

the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
for ever and ever." 

And in Matthew xiii. 43, Jesus says, re- 
garding the end of the world : " Then shall 
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father." These passages 
may possibly have more than a merely poetic 
and spiritual significance, and may refer to an 
actual radiance which shall accompany the 
forms of just men made perfect, as it does the 
angels, when appearing to dwellers upon earth. 

Do the vibrations of sound, as well as the 
vibrations of light, become, so to say, re- 
fracted or diffracted in passing from the celes- 
tial speaker to the earthly hearer ? Possibly. 
When God talks with Moses upon Mount 
Sinai, " the voice of a trumpet" is heard for 
some time before God answers Moses in a 
voice of clearly articulated speech. And it is 
noticeable that in two cases even the articu- 
late voice of the Heavenly being has a curious 
sound. Daniel compares it to the voice of a 
multitude ; John hears the Son of man speak- 
ing with a voice of many waters. We our- 
selves at times get a similar effect, when 
listening at a telephone or a phonograph. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 31 

With both of these instruments, this dis- 
tortion of the voice is due to imperfectly 
transmitted vibrations; these being due to 
imperfection in one of three things, — the 
transmitting instrument, the receiving instru- 
ment, or the connecting line. May not the 
curiously distorted voices heard by Daniel and 
John be likewise due to imperfectly trans- 
mitted vibrations ? If so, whose is the fault ? 
Scarcely that of the Heavenly being, who 
must be far wiser and more skilful than any 
one upon the earth ; but more than likely the 
fault of the earthly ear, — the receiving instru- 
ment for the vibrations of the celestial voice. 
And so we get blurs in vision and blurs in 
sound accompanying angelic manifestations, 
as the possible result of earthly imperfections 
in sight and hearing. 

Equality ot flDan witb Hngels* 

The Bible assures us that whatever at- 
tributes angels possess, man, too, shall pos- 
sess, when he shall have entered the Heavenly 
Land. More than one passage proves this. 

In Revelation xxii. 8, 9, John says : 

" I fell down to worship before the feet of 
the angel which shewed me these things. 



32 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

And he saith unto me, See thou do it not; 

I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy 
brethren the prophets, and with them which 
keep the words of this book; worship God." 

And a similar occurrence is noted in Reve- 
lation xix. 10. In Hebrews ii. 6-8, a quo- 
tation is made from one of the Psalms, as 
follows : 

II What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 
Or the son of man, that thou visitest him ? 

Thou madest him for a little while lower than the angels ; x 
Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, 
And didst set him over the works of thy hands ; 
Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet." 

In the 8th Psalm, however, from which this 
quotation seems to have been made, the read- 
ing preferred by the translators of the Revised 
Version is : " Thou hast made him but little 
lower than God" (Hebrew, Mohim). This 
cannot but remind us of the text in Romans 
viii. 16, 17 : 

" The Spirit himself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are children of God; and 



1 This is the marginal reading. The alternate reading 
is : u Thou madest him a little lower than the ansrels." 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 33 

if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and 
joint-heirs with Christ." 

John (1st Epistle iii. 2) writes : 

" Beloved, now are we children of God, and 
it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. 
We know that if he [or " it"] shall be mani- 
fested, we shall be like him." 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus him- 
self insists : " Ye therefore shall be perfect, 
as your heavenly Father is perfect." And in 
Luke xx. 34-36, he says : 

" They that are accounted worthy to attain 
to ... . the resurrection from the dead .... 
are equal unto the angels; and are sons of 
God, being sons of the resurrection." 

From all of which it is evident that we 
shall exercise angelic powers, since we shall 
be equal to the angels. Like the angels, too, 
we may, perchance, be chosen as heavenly 
messengers to the dwellers upon earth. In- 
deed, the occurrences at the Mount of Trans- 
figuration and ip. the abode of the Witch of 
Endor prove, by Scripture testimony, that the 
blessed dead can at times manifest their pres- 
ence to earth's people as can the angels. 



34 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Last, but not least, the foregoing indicates 
that we are acknowledged as sharers in the 
divine possibilities of God Himself, as His 
children and heirs. 

Ube Mraitb* 

If human beings are to possess the attributes 
of angels when they get to Heaven, we may 
expect to find some latent indications of those 
powers while on earth, somewhat as the petals 
of a coming blossom are folded tightly in the 
bud. And, just as some disturbing cause — a 
worm, a knife-thrust, or a brier of a neigh- 
boring bush pressed rudely against the bud — 
may reveal the immature petals of the blossom 
which is to be, so, in the earthly life of man, 
abnormal disturbing influences may suddenly 
reveal to the beholder the immature potencies 
of the soul-life which is being prepared to 
blossom in the air of the garden of God 
beyond the grave. 

The English Society for Psychical Research, 
which has scientifically proven, by test experi- 
ments, that there is a sixth sense developing 
in the human race to-day — the sense of telep- 
athy, or thought-transference without phys- 
ical means — has also recorded some three 
thousand cases of wraiths or " doubles," as 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 35 

they are sometimes called. As it is the cus- 
tom of this society to formally record only 
such cases as are testified to by two or more 
witnesses, and as the society numbers among 
its members such able and clear-headed men 
as Lord Rayleigh, Professor Oliver Lodge, 
Professor Crookes (whose tubes have been an 
important factor in the discovery of the X- 
rays), Mr. Arthur Balfour, Professor Richet, 
Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Andrew Lang, and others, 
it will be seen that the society's accumulated 
testimony to the double or wraith of man is 
worthy of respectful consideration. 

The division of man into body, soul, and 
spirit is perhaps the simplest one which will 
furnish a satisfactory working theory to ex- 
plain the phenomena of wraiths or apparitions 
of those experiencing some sudden shock or 
perilous accidents of any sort, such as danger 
of drowning, gunshot wounds in battle, etc., 
or of those who are experiencing deep mental 
distress or intense weariness. These appari- 
tions, be it remembered, are of people still 
upon the earth, and they do not come from 
the world beyond the grave. The soul-body 
(if we may call it such) which appears at such 
a moment seems to be unhampered either by 
distance or by confining walls, and will appear 



36 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

a thousand miles away as readily as in the 
adjoining room. In some cases it has be- 
haved in such a natural fashion and so like 
the bodily, tangible form of the person him- 
self that the beholder did not suspect the ap- 
parition to be an apparition until afterwards. 
Two remarkable instances are given by Mr. 
William T. Stead, in an article entitled 
" Doubles I have Seen," in his magazine, Bor- 
derland, for January, 1896. In a very few 
cases recorded by the Society for Psychical 
Eesearch, the experiment of sending forth 
one's soul-body at will to a distant friend has 
been tried, and with moderate success ; but 
most of the cases have been involuntary, and 
without the control of the conscious per- 
sonality. 

Away back in Bible times the existence of 
the wraith or soul-body seems to have been 
recognized. When Peter was delivered from 
prison by the intervention of the angel, he 
went to a friend's house and knocked at the 
gate. A maid came to the gate, and, hearing 
his well-known voice, did not wait to admit 
him, but rushed back joyfully to announce to 
the people gathered in the house that Peter 
stood outside. They exclaimed, " Thou art 
mad !" But as she persisted in her statement, 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 37 

they said, " It is his angel/' Evidently, the 
word cannot refer to a guardian angel, since 
it is scarcely to be supposed that our guardian 
angels acquire our tones of voice. The nar- 
rative shows that her hearers viewed the mat- 
ter as something uncanny; for neither the 
maid nor her mistress nor the visitors were at 
all disposed to open the gate to the being who 
possessed Peter's voice; so that he had to 
continue knocking for admission. Is it not 
fair to infer that they supposed the maid had 
heard the voice of Peter's wraith or double 
or astral form or soul-body, and that they 
termed this wraith or astral form " his angel" ? 
A passage in Acts xxiii. throws some fur- 
ther light upon the possible use of the word 
" angel" as a synonym for the soul-body. It 
reads, — 

" The Sadducees say that there is no resur- 
rection, neither angel, nor spirit ; but the 
Pharisees confess both." 

Here the word " angel" is evidently synon- 
ymous with the soul of man. For, of course, 
the question of resurrection cannot be raised 
concerning the angels of Heaven, who have 
never died. 



38 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Farther on in the same chapter occurs the 
remark, — 

" We find no evil in this man ; and what if 
a spirit hath spoken to him, or an angel ?" 

That is (possibly), "What if a Heavenly 
being hath spoken to him, or an earthly 
wraith ?" 

It is possible that the remark of Jesus con- 
cerning little children, " I say unto you that 
in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father which is in heaven," may 
refer to the soul of the child, and not, as is 
generally supposed, to its guardian angel; 
since it is not likely that any special merit or 
demerit can attach to any one Heavenly being 
more than another, when all alike are engaged 
in doing God's work. 

At the Mount of Transfiguration we get a 
glimpse of how glorious may be the soul-body 
of him who lives the life which ensures close 
personal relations with God. When Jesus 
was transfigured, the Scriptures do not state 
that he manifested as God. On the contrary, 
it was distinctly as a glorified human person- 
ality that he appeared to his disciples. He 
was invested with the usual accompaniments 
of the angelic being manifesting on the earthly 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 39 

plane — radiance of face and person ; his very 
garments appearing to scintillate dazzling 
white light. As there is no mention made 
of celestial garments being brought for him 
to put on just prior to the transfiguration, we 
cannot suppose that these gleaming white 
garments — "so as no fuller on earth can 
whiten them" — were anything but his every- 
day clothes, which partook for the time of the 
radiance of his soul-body. That soul-body, 
on its human side, was that which he held in 
common with men and with angels. During 
what is termed the Transfiguration that body 
manifested on the borderland of two planes 
of existence, the earthly and the Heavenly, 
transcending and hiding the outlines of its 
usual receptacle, the physical body. And 
because it was a manifestation in part from 
another plane of existence than the earthly, 
and to eyes unaccustomed to focusing appari- 
tions from that plane, the spiritual glory was 
accompanied by the usual optical illusion of 
dazzling rays of light, caused, as I have 
already suggested, by the Heaven-light in 
which the soul-body stands being viewed 
through imperfect lenses. 

A lesser transfiguration occurred with 
Stephen, the first Christian martyr. When 



40 THE HEAVEX OF THE BIBLE. 

he was falsely accused, they that sat in the 
council, looking steadfastly on him. •* saw his 
face as it had been the face of an angel. " 
"Whether heavenlv being" or earthly wraith be 
here meant, at all events. Stephen's face was 
for the moment transfigured by his noble 
serenity during the ordeal through which he 
was passing. — as we have all seen people's 
faces become momentarily transfigured within 
our own experience. At such times we see 
and know beyond all doubt that the inner 
nature is higher, purer, clearer, more forceful 
than that with which we daily come in con- 
tact in our intercourse with that person : it 
may even seem invested with a semi-radiance. 
It is but for a moment that we are dazzled by 
that strange light from within: the next mo- 
ment the curtains of the flesh are once more 
drawn across. But when those curtains shall 
be finally rent asunder and destroyed by death, 
shall not that transfiguration of the face be 
eternal ? Shall not the face of our earthly 
friend, the face of Stephen, the face of the 
transfigured Jesus, and the soul-body of the lit- 
tle child which forever looks upon the Father's 
face find a common fulfilment in the life be- 
yond the grave ? Let us remember that when 
the Witch of Endor saw the deceased Samuel 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 41 

rising apparently out of the earth, she spoke 
of him as " a god." 

Hnimals* 

The only animals mentioned with which we 
are familiar are horses. When Elijah ascends 
to Heaven, a chariot and horses are at hand to 
convey him, accompanied, as usual, by the 
angelic manifestation of dazzling light. The 
marginal reading is " or chariots" indicating 
that more than one chariot may have been 
present, with, of course, the requisite horses. 

In Revelation xix. 11-14, the seer, in an 
evidently prophetic vision, beholds the heaven 
opened, and one called the Word of God 
riding forth upon a white horse. Behind him 
follow " the armies which are in heaven, .... 
clothed in fine white linen," also mounted 
upon white horses. Prophecy though this be, 
and not a vision of events then actually occur- 
ring, it indicates that horses may possibly 
exist in large numbers within the precincts 
of the Heavenly City ; and this possibility be- 
comes a probability when we recall the celes- 
tial chariot (or chariots ?) and horses which 
were visible during the ascent of Elijah. 

According to Scripture, however, there exist 
also some curious animals in Heaven, in which 



42 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

the human and the beast nature blend. Mon- 
strosities though they appear to our earthly 
comprehension, the Lord, in His wisdom, has 
chosen just these animals to be ever near His 
throne. There would seem to be two types 
of these strange creatures. 

One, described only by Isaiah, is a creature 
with six wings. " TVith twain he covered his 
face, and with twain he covered his feet, and 
with twain he did fly." These beings are 
called seraphim ; they are endowed with 
speech, and have, apparently, the hands of a 
man. In the Greek Cathedral in London 
may be seen colossal paintings of seraphim 
which, although drawn from an artist's im- 
agination of what Isaiah strove to describe, 
nevertheless give one some idea of what these 
beings must look like — mostlv wines. When 
Isaiah saw these seraphim, they were singing, 
in an antiphonal chant, praises to the holi- 
ness of the Lord. 

It is interesting to note that when one of 
these seraphim had occasion to remove a live 
coal (or, as the marginal reading has it, " a 
hot stone") from the altar, he was careful to 
use the tongs— whether because his body was 
susceptible to earthly heat, or because his 
fingers might have become soiled, does not 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 43 

appear. But, to whichever cause due, it is 
suggestive, as indicating a closer similarity 
between celestial bodily sensibilities and ours 
than we are wont to imagine. 

The other type of semi-human, semi-animal 
creatures found in Heaven is described both 
by Ezekiel and by John the Eevelator, and is 
called " a cherub." These cherubim appear 
to unite within themselves the natures of 
bird, quadruped, and possibly insect with the 
nature of a man. Each one has four faces, — 
the face of a man, of a calf or ox, of a lion, 
and of an eagle. Their feet are hoofed like 
those of a calf; they have human hands and 
are endowed with speech. Innumerable eyes 
are seen upon them, — a feature which cannot 
but remind us of the multitudinous eye-lenses 
of the fly and other insects. Ezekiel says they 
have four wings ; John sees six. But as the 
cherubim which Ezekiel beheld seem to have 
been accompanying the Lord on a journey 
through the sky, while those seen by John 
were before the throne of God in Heaven, we 
may easily account for the discrepancy by 
supposing that Ezekiel and John did not see 
the same cherubim. Ezekiel also sees a curi- 
ous display of pale greenish wheels which he 
labors vainly to describe, and which seem to 



44 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

him to be part and parcel of the living crea- 
tures, the felloes of the wheels being set fall 
of eyes round about. John, however, says 
nothing of such wheels. It is noticeable that 
in Ezekiel's case the accompanying manifesta- 
tions of radiance are much more marked than 
with the cherubim seen by John ; and if we 
suppose this to be due to the fact that the 
lenses of EzekiePs eyes were less perfectly 
suited for focusing heavenly objects than were 
those of John, it might account for those 
strange beryl-colored wheels which he notes, 
with amazement, to be moving with every 
motion of the cherubim, — as I have already 
suggested under the heading, Radiance of 
Angels. 

The cherubim which accompany the Lord 
on his journeys through the sky appear at 
times to be used as a sort of saddle-horse. 
According to David, the Psalmist, when the 
Lord 

" . . . . bowed the heavens, .... and came down, 
And thick darkness was under his feet, 
.... He rode upon a cherub, and did fly." 

Psalm xviii. 9, 10. 

And in the 80th Psalm David says : 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 45 

11 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel : 
Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; 
Thou that sittest upon [or, dwellest between] the cheru- 
bim, shine forth." 

Ezekiel describes the cherubim as accom- 
panied by a great floor like ice or crystal over 
their heads, the sapphire-like throne of the 
Lord being above this crystalline platform. 
As the first appearance of this vision was a 
moving one, coming out of a cloud of flashing 
fire blown by a stormy wind from the north, 
it would seem as though we had here a de- 
scription of what might be termed the state 
chariot of the Lord, drawn by these four 
cherubic animals. 

It is noteworthy, in this connection, that 
while the throne seen by Ezekiel is blue, the 
throne seen in Heaven by John when he 
speaks of the four strange creatures who 
chant God's praises is surrounded by an em- 
erald-colored rainbow, — which suggests either 
that John and Ezekiel saw through different 
kinds of eye-lenses, or else that the throne in 
the Lord's state chariot is not the throne upon 
which He sits in Heaven. 

But there still remain those very remarkable 
wheels seen by Ezekiel to be accounted for, — 
wheels which seem to be a part of the living 



46 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

creatures themselves. Can it be that these 
wheels were not optical illusions of radiance 
after all, but that they apparently were both a 
part of the chariot and a part of the cherubim ? 
If so, there can be but one common-sense ex- 
planation : Ezekiel was striving to describe a 
sort of compound bicycle, of which the cheru- 
bim were the motor power. And, just as the 
prehistoric Greeks are supposed to have de- 
scribed the first horsemen they saw as cen- 
taurs, — creatures part man and part horse, — 
so Ezekiel, striving to describe these celestial 
bicyclists, could make his meaning evident 
only by the similitude of a being composed of 
a living creature and a wheel which moved 
simultaneously. And, in this connection, we 
may note how " high and dreadful" appeared 
to Ezekiel the felloes of those wheels, — indi- 
cating that, as in the earliest attempts at the 
earthly bicycle, the large diameter of the wheel 
is a conspicuous feature. 

Startling as this suggestion of celestial bi- 
cycles may appear, there is nothing either in- 
congruous or irreverent in the idea. If such 
old-fashioned means of locomotion as chariots 
and horses existed in Heaven in the days of 
Elijah, is it not reasonable to infer that the 
angelic community over there should at least 



THE HEAVEN OE THE BIBLE. 47 

have kept up with modern earthly inventions ? 
Nay, is it not likely that they have outstripped 
us in such matters, and that their means of 
locomotion have always been far in advance 
of ours? If so, and if Ezekiel saw four bi- 
cycling cherubim moving simultaneously on 
their wheels, we need not wonder at his ina- 
bility to describe this complex and astounding 
vehicle more accurately. 

In Genesis, after Adam and Eve had been ex- 
pelled, we find the cherubim mentioned as be- 
ing placed on guard at the eastern side of Eden, 
with a flaming sword that turned every way. 

What were those flashes of light which ac- 
companied the waving of the cherubic sword ? 
Were they entirely due to optical illusions of 
radiance accompanying angelic apparitions, 
and did the shining metal of the sword catch 
more of the dazzling light of Paradise than 
did the cherubic form itself? Or did the 
metal weapon scintillate with light of its own, 
— the sparks, let us say, of an electrical current 
strong enough to give Adam and Eve a most 
disagreeable shock if they should attempt to 
re-enter the Edenic garden whence they had 
been expelled ? That the attempt was probable 
is indicated by the fact that the cherubim were 
placed on guard. We can scarcely suppose 



48 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

that the cherubic sword, if turned against the 
guilty pair, would have power to slay, as do 
ordinary swords, since it was evidently no part 
of God's plan that either Adam or Eve should 
die until thej^ had begotten sons and daughters 
to people the earth. We are therefore driven 
to the conclusion that the sword would pain, but 
not kill either of the guilty ones who might 
attempt to re-enter. This sword which pains 
but which does not kill, which flashes as it 
turns in every direction, may it not have been 
electric ? If, as I have already suggested, the 
angelic community are in advance of us in the 
matter of inventive genius, an electric sword 
which would shock without killing, and which 
would flash electric sparks with each renewal 
and break in the circuit, would not be either 
impossible or unlikely. 

Untmstries* 

The reader who has followed me to this 
point will, I think, agree with me in my sug- 
gestion as to the angels of Heaven being in 
advance of ourselves in the matter of inventive 
genius. However, the object of this book is 
not to speculate, but to show what can be 
reasonably deduced from the Bible about life 
in Heaven. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 49 

If it be objected that industrial pursuits 
will not be followed in Heaven, since God can, 
by a word, create garments and food, houses 
and living beings, I reply that He does not do 
so here. He works by means, by agents, here 
on this earth. And if we are to credit the 
prophetic visions of John, He also works thus 
in Heaven, and not by direct interposition. 
This being, I think, self-evident to any careful 
reader of the Bible, I venture to set down a 
few of the industries and industrial workers 
which the Bible glimpses of life in Heaven 
suggest will be or have been at some time 
necessary : 

Cits TOalls* 

Stone-cutters and polishers to shape and 
polish the stones which form the city wall. 

Implements to do this work. 

Masons to build the wall. 

Mortar, trowels, and hods for carrying 
mortar. 

Workers skilled in cutting the large pearls 
of which the gates are made. 

Special implements for same. 

Metal hinges and rivets for the pearly 
gates. 

4 



50 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Streets anD SSuilDinQg^ 

Workers in the gold of which the streets 
and buildings are made. 

Miners to dig the gold-quartz from the 
mine or to wash out the deposits in auriferous 
gravel. 

Stamp-mills, sluices, reverberatory furnaces, 
cupels, etc., to prepare the crude gold for the 
goldsmith. 

Architects, masons (and possibly carpenters) 
to erect the "many mansions." 

fnlustc* 

Harp-makers. 
Trumpet-makers. 

Chorus-masters for the religious service 
about the throne. 

Cbatfots anD IHorses* 

Harness-makers. 

Saddlers. 

Wheelwrights. 

Nuts, screws, tires, rivets, axles, etc. 

Axle-grease. 

Blacksmiths. 

Hostlers. 

Currycombs, etc. 

Charioteers. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 51 

Mar* 

Weapons for Michael and his angels and for 
" the armies in heaven" generally. 

Sword for angel seen by Balaam and his ass. 
Sword for angel seen by David. 

©at&em 

Gardeners to attend to the plants in Paradise. 

Gardening implements. 

Fertilizers. 

Scavengers to remove the debris of fruit 
plucked from the tree of life. 

Keceptacles of basketry, pottery, glass, 
metal, wood, or other material for removing 
said debris. 

Cups for those who wish to satisfy their 
thirst by drinking of the water of life. Also 
cups from which Jesus and his disciples may 
drink of the fruit of the vine, as implied by 
the words spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper. 

©arments* 

Spinning and weaving. 
Artists to drape the garments. 
Shears to cut dress- stuffs. 
Needles and thread to sew garments, or at 
least to hem the ravelled edges. 



52 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

Clasps, buttons, strings, tapes, or hooks and 
eyes for fastening garments. 

Stuff-threads interwoven with gold to make 
golden girdles. 

Crown-makers. 

Flax-fields for the manufacture of linen. 

Linen manufacturers. 

Laundries to wash the garments clean. 

Baskets or other receptacles for removing 
soiled linen. 



Cbemical Xaboratots* 

Chlorine, mercury, salt, sulphuric acid, 
nitric acid, etc., for freeing gold from im- 
purities. 

Stearine, oleine, potash, and soda for soap 
in laundries (?). 

Possibly alkalies to be used in hastening 
decomposition of flax-fibres. 

Manganese, tungsten, chromium, or tita- 
nium, etc., for manufacture of steel blades of 
swords used by angels. 

The chemicals necessary for making the 
writing-ink (or its equivalent) used for record- 
ing in the Book of Life and other books 
referred to in connection with the Day of 
Judgment. 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 53 

Clerical TKHorft* 

Clerks to record in books the earthly deeds 
of each human being (Rev. xx. 12-15). 

Recorder of the Book of Life. 

Paper or some other material for leaves of 
recording books. 

Pens and ink or other writing materials. 

Paste or clamps or thread for fastening to- 
gether leaves of record books. 

Leather, wood, or other stont material for 
binding records. 

IPereonal Sccessorfee* 

Towels for the hands and feet ; since hands 
may become wet when dipping a drink out of 
the river of the water of life, whether by 
hand or cup, and also soiled from plucking 
fruit from the tree of life; and feet may be- 
come soiled from walking in the garden, so 
that mud may be tramped over the clean, 
golden streets, up to the foot of the throne. 

Also, towels for the body generally. 

Also, towels for drying the drinking-cups. 

Tooth-brushes to be used after each luncheon 
from the tree of life. 

Special implements for cleaning the wings 
of the seraphim and cherubim, and also for 
smoothing the feathers, etc., etc. 



54 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

possible Duties of Citisensbtp* 

Committees of hospitality : at least one com- 
mittee from each race of people, to welcome 
every new-comer to the Heavenly City and to 
assign him his proper place in municipal 
affairs. 

Drill-masters to conduct the evolutions of 
the immense throng in the religious rites 
about the throne. 

Officials to organize and superintend the 
various departments of municipal work, — 
clerical, gardening, house-building, metal- 
working, etc. 

Other possible industries will readily sug- 
gest themselves to the earnest and thoughtful 
student of Scripture. 

MrongboinG 

is, of course, not tolerated, as is evidenced 
by the fact that those who violate the moral 
code (see Revelation xxi. 8, and xxii. 15) are 
not even permitted to enter the gates. Ap- 
parently, however, temptations to wrongdoing 
exist even in Heaven; for we learn from 2d 
Peter ii. that God spared not angels when 
they sinned, but cast them into dark dun- 
geons, and, according to some authorities, also 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 



55 



put them into chains, to await judgment. 
The Epistle of Jude hints at a resemblance 
between the sin of these angels and that of 
the dwellers in Sodom. But, whatever the 
sin, the Scriptures clearly state that wrong- 
doing of some sort did occur among the 
angels. 

Inasmuch as we shall be equal to the angels 
when we get to Heaven, we may expect to be 
at times likewise tempted to wrongdoing, as 
they were, and to be obliged to resist those 
temptations successfully, if we would be ac- 
counted worthy to remain in the society of the 
blessed dead. 



jfamils %itc. 

There is neither marrying nor giving in 
marriage; but the relation of husband and 
wife still exists, and children maybe begotten 
as upon earth. This we learn from Jesus 
himself. It appears that some Sadducees — 
that sect which held that there is no resur- 
rection — propounded to Jesus a sort of catch 
question, evidently intended to trip him up. 
They assumed the case of a woman who had 
married successively seven men, without issue 
by any; and they asked Jesus which of the 
seven could claim her as his lawful wife in the 



56 THE HEAYEN OF THE BIBLE. 

resurrection. Jesus replied, in substance, that 
while men in this world marry and are given 
in marriage, such custom does not exist in 
Heaven. Instead, men shall there live as do 
the angels. 

If angels were sexless, this statement would 
of course do away with the possibility of 
husbands, wives, and the begetting of children 
in Heaven. But the reverse is the case, as we 
learn from Scripture. In Genesis vi. we find 
the statement, " The sons of God saw the 
daughters of men, that they were fair; and 
they took them wives of all that they chose." 
The Septuagint, however, originally rendered 
the words " sons of God" by " angels of God ;" 
and this rendering is found in Philo, Eusebius, 
Augustine, and Ambrose. This view of the 
above text was held by most of the early 
Church Fathers. " Angels of God" seems to 
be the original rendering. 

From this it is evident that angels, accord- 
ing to Scripture, are by no means sexless, but 
are as desirous as are earthly men to enter 
into lawful marital relations with the women 
of their choice. And another verse in the 
same chapter states that children were born 
from these unions of the angels of God with 
the daughters of men — and exceptionally fine 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 57 

children they were, too; for we read that 
" the same were the mighty men which were 
of old, the men of renown." 

When we remember that Jesus spoke of 
conjugal union in Heaven as existing without 
the earthly custom of giving in marriage, we 
begin to realize why such stress is laid upon 
prohibiting the entrance of the impure into 
the Heavenly City in Revelation xxi. 8 and 
xxii. 15. 

Paul, writing to the Corinthians at an epoch 
when modest women in their community 
usually went veiled in public, reminds his 
readers that it is unseemly, " because of the 
angels," for a woman to unveil her face when 
praying to God or prophesying ; thus appear- 
ing to recognize, even at that late day, the 
possibility of masculine lovers among the 
unseen angels standing round about God's 
throne. 

In Revelation xiv. 4, we learn that " they 
which were not defiled with women" are 
chosen to be the especially intimate associates 
of the Lamb, following him " whithersoever 
he goeth." " They are virgins," say the 
translators of the Bible. But the Greek word 
parthenoi, here translated " virgin," also means 
" pure," " chaste ;" and there seems to be no 



58 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

reason why a husband and a father may not 
be a pure man. At all events, we have the 
emphatic testimony of Jesus himself, as I 
have shown above, to the existence of wed- 
lock and parenthood among angels and the 
blessed dead, — and perhaps among those of 
the dead who are not blest, inasmuch as the 
phrase, " in the resurrection, " is used by 
Jesus, and no discrimination is here made by 
him between the just and the unjust. 

•Requirements for Cttt3ensbtp, 

A list of the classes who cannot be admitted 
as citizens will be found in Revelation xxi. 8, 
and xxii. 15. We may note, however, that 
the word which the translators have rendered 
unbelieving in xxi. 8, also means " untrust- 
worthy," " faithless," " disobedient." 

Now, as to those who can be admitted as 
citizens : 

Calling on the name of the Lord is referred to 
in both the Old and the New Testament as a 
potent means of salvation from evil, and, by 
inference, of admission into the charmed 
circle of God's favor. Joel, speaking of " the 
great and terrible day of the Lord," says, 
" And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 59 

delivered." In the New Testament the term 
"Lord" is no longer applied only to Jehovah, 
but also to Jesus, Paul asserting in his epistle 
to the Romans (x. 9), " If thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe 
in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved." Peter, in Acts iv. 12, says, 
"In none other is there salvation; for neither 
is there any other name under heaven that is 
given among men, wherein we must be saved." 

Jesus, however, lifts a warning voice in 
regard to this, remarking, "Not every one 
that saith unto me, ' Lord, Lord/ shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." (Matthew vii. 21.) 

If, then, calling on Jesus as Lord be an 
uncertain passport to Paradise unless backed 
up by evidences of obedience to the Divine 
Will, it becomes of the utmost importance to 
know what that Will requires. 

What says Jesus himself? 

Prominent among his teachings stands the 
Sermon on the Mount, which is evidently an 
epitome of his views on duty-doing. In this 
he lays stress upon righteousness as a neces- 
sary passport to the kingdom of heaven, and 
purity of heart as a certain means of seeing God. 



60 THE HEAVEN OE THE BIBLE. 

In Luke x. 25-28, we read the following : 

"And behold, a certain lawyer stood up 
and tempted him, saying, ' Master, what shall 
I do to inherit eternal life?' And he said 
unto him, ' "What is written in the law ? How 
readest thou V And he answering said, i Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as 
thyself.' And he said unto him, ' Thou hast 
answered right; this do, and thou shalt live.' " 

Then follows the parable of the Good Sa- 
maritan. 

Here we find enjoined both love toward God 
and love toward our neighbor, — those two 
commandments upon which, as Jesus else- 
where remarks, " hangeth the whole law and 
the prophets." 

The rich young man who asks how he shall 
inherit eternal life finds that keeping the ten 
commandments of Moses is not sufficient. 
He must sell all he has, and give to the poor ; 
and Jesus, whose heart yearns with love 
toward the young man, in addition invites 
him to become one with his own little mis- 
sionary band of disciples. The young man 
objects, not to accepting the invitation, ap- 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 61 

parently, but to giving away his possessions 
to the poor; and he goes away sorrowful. 
Whereupon Jesus moralizes upon how ex- 
tremely difficult it is for a rich man to enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. 

It is instructive to note that he who had 
kept the ten commandments from his youth 
up needed but one thing, according to Jesus, 
to make him "perfect," and that was large- 
hearted charity. 

In the parable of the sheep and the goats 
Jesus represents the entrance into the life 
eternal of the blest as entirely dependent upon 
deeds of charity, — feeding the hungry, giving 
drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and 
visiting those who are sick or in prison. No 
mention is made of the need for such men's 
acknowledging him as Lord; and when he 
tells them that they have done these things to 
him in doing them to the least of their breth- 
ren, they are greatly astonished. 

Elsewhere he says that the kingdom of 
heaven can be entered into only by those who 
humble themselves as little children. Just in 
what way this humbling should take place is 
not stated. It is usually assumed that child- 
like simplicity is the trait which is thus typi- 
fied. But simplicity is not the only striking 



62 THE HEAVEN OE THE BIBLE. 

trait possessed by children in contradistinction 
to persons of mature age; and there are in- 
dications in the context that another and 
highly mystical meaning was here attached by 
Jesus to the little child as a type of the means 
by which the kingdom of heaven was to be 
gained, — a meaning which would require more 
space for its explanation than the scope of the 
present volume justifies. 

The apostles have much to say of redemp- 
tion through the blood of Christ. Jesus him- 
self says : " He that eateth my flesh and 
drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I 
will raise him up at the last day." Evidently, 
these words are not meant to be taken liter- 
ally, but metaphorically, — just as is the state- 
ment of John in Revelation, that the robes of 
the redeemed are washed white in the blood 
of the Lamb. In neither case can real blood 
be intended, either as a beverage or for wash- 
ing purposes. To understand just what is 
meant by these references to the blood of the 
Christ, we should study the Oriental custom 
of blood-covenanting, as it was understood in 
those days, and as it is still practised, not only 
in the Orient, but also among savage tribes in 
various lands, as a sacred rite, — a rite whose 
world-wide diffusion marks it as a prehistoric 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 63 

custom to which a peculiar and mystic signifi- 
cance is attached. But to deal with this sub- 
ject at length is also outside the scope of the 
present volume. We have only, in passing, 
to note the fact that the wide-spread Oriental 
custom of blood-covenanting is referred to by 
Jesus in a figurative sense, and that he adapts 
it to his argument to show the possible oneness 
of his hearers with himself and with God. 

Summing up the requirements for citizen- 
ship in the Heavenly City beyond the grave, 
as set forth in Scripture, we find them to be : 

1. Drinking the blood of Jesus Evidently mystical, and pos- 

and eating his flesh. sibly intended to be under- 

stood only by the initiates 
among his disciples. In the 
primitive Christian Church, 
indeed, as is well known, the 
Eucharist was partaken of 
only by the initiates, and 
with closed doors; its true 
meaning being held as a mys- 
tery, not to be divulged even 
to the neophytes and catechu- 
mens in the Church. 

2. Humbling ourselves as little Possibly mystical, and under- 

children. stood only by the instructed. 

If literally intended, we must 
not forget that to fail to be- 
come childlike is to fail of 
admission to the kingdom of 
Heaven. 



64 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

3. Calling on the name of the An uncertain passport, as we 

Lord. learn from Jesus himself, in- 

asmuch as, unless we also do 
the will of God, our acknowl- 
edgment of Jesus as Lord 
will not admit us to Heaven. 

4. Avoidance of the crimes whose doers are listed in Revelation 

xxi. 8, and xxii. 15. 

5. Large-hearted charity, — feeding the hungry, giving drink to 

the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those who are sick 
or in prison, and giving all that we have to those more un- 
fortunate than ourselves ; in short, loving our neighbors as 
ourselves. 

6. Loving God with every faculty of our being, — physical, men- 

tal, emotional, aesthetic, affectional, spiritual, etc. For it is 
quite evident, from the emphatic way in which the com- 
mand, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," is put, that all 
of our nature must stand in loving and harmonious relation 
toward God, and that to neglect the manifestation of love 
and harmonious relations toward Him with any faculty is to 
fail to keep the law, and therefore, according to Scripture, to 
fail to inherit eternal life. Evidently, it is not sufficient to 
yield obedience to God as we do to the officials of an earthly 
government ; we must also feel an earnest, active, heartfelt 
love toward Him, if we are to inherit eternal life. 

These, I take it, are the requirements for 
citizenship in Paradise, as set forth in the 
Bible. 

Substantiality of Heaven* 

From the foregoing, we see that the Scrip- 
tures show the world beyond the grave to be 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 65 

just as substantial a world as is our own. There, 
as here, water quenches thirst and luscious 
fruits refresh. There, as here, life alternates 
between the city and the garden. There, as 
here, industries are evidently carried on, — since 
we can scarcely suppose that in Heaven God 
would Himself do the work of manufacturing 
garments, buildings, musical instruments, etc., 
in order to allow His children to fold their 
hands in idleness, any more than He does it 
here. Such differences as Scripture demon- 
strates to exist between life on earth and life 
in Heaven are, apparently, those incident to a 
world which embraces our world, and which 
has, in addition, many experiences of its own. 
The angels can evidently do all that we can on 
the physical plane, and some things that we 
cannot, — such as did the angel who delivered 
Peter from prison ; and, as we shall be equal 
to the angels when we get to Heaven, we, too, 
when occasion arises, shall be able to do for 
others what that angel did for Peter. The 
same emotions, the same affections prevail 
there as here, only intensified in all that is 
pure and uplifting, and suppressed utterly in 
all that is ignoble and impure. Wedded life, 
with all that the term signifies, maybe entered 
upon, but only in purity and in love toward 

5 



66 THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 

G-od, since to be unchaste or to fail to love 
God with every faculty of our being is to be 
debarred from citizenship in Paradise. 

There is not one word said about the world 
beyond the grave being a ghostly place, 
peopled with misty shadows. It is, appar- 
ently, a tangible, actual, material world, where 
people live healthy, physical lives ; where they 
love and beget children as they do here, but 
only in accordance with righteous laws; where 
communion with God is far more intimate and 
ecstatic than here ; and where, finally, tempta- 
tion to wrong-doing must still be met and 
overcome, and the moral nature kept upper- 
most, if a man's Heavenly citizenship is to be 
a permanent thing. 

The idea, all too prevalent among Christian 
people, that Heaven is ethereal, unsubstantial, 
and intangible, with little or no likeness to 
earth and the earthly life, has not the least 
support in the testimony of Scripture. On 
the contrary, every glimpse the Bible gives 
us of Heaven and of its inhabitants goes to 
prove that the life of angels and of the blessed 
dead is but the old earth-life writ large and 
purified, plus additional capacities of which 
we are at present ignorant. Truly, as Jesus 
said when he spoke of the future equality of 



THE HEAVEN OF THE BIBLE. 67 

men with angels and of the certainty of res- 
urrection, " God is not the God of the dead, 
but of the living; for all live unto Him." 

Let us bear in mind what the writer of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews says, where he speaks 
of the faith of the patriarchs, — that faith 
which, as the Revised Version phrases it, " is 
the assurance of things hoped for, the proving 
[or test] of things not seen." He writes : 

" These all died in faith, not having re- 
ceived the promises, but having seen them 
and greeted them from afar, and having con- 
fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims 
on the earth. For they that say such things 
make it manifest that they are seeking after a 
country of their own. And if indeed they 
had been mindful of that country from which 
they went out, they would have had oppor- 
tunity to return. But now they desire a 
better country, that is, a heavenly ; wherefore 
God is not ashamed of them, to be called 
their God; for he hath prepared for them a 
city." (Hebrews xi. 13-16.) 

And in Philippians iii. 20, Paul remarks : 

" For our citizenship [or commonwealth] is 
in Heaven." 




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